Entrepreneur’s Confession: Input defines your growth

As I just got off the phone with one my colleagues with whom we have been discussing the challenges of the African Diaspora communities given that we both came out of prestigious schools with great academic achievements and having extensive professional experience that we believed should be extended to constituent building with structured engagement; I found myself referring back to one of my writings ” Strategic thinker and tactful executor” I had published on another platform as I was editing my manuscript of 200 pages ( I still plan to publish it). I understood that validation from others was important and – albeit customers, investors or team members- meant the input into your business by those involved determined the energy required for the business to propel. So this blog is to share with entrepreneurs and peers that the “input” will determine your growth.

Three years ago, I was in a conversation about my business and the only assertion made by one of the man present during the dialogue session was “you are a Strategic Thinker” and as an entrepreneur, I should be more aggressive in my approach. It was interesting to me as I knew that he was never an entrepreneur rather he inserted himself as a consultant for USAID, taking ample of money for him and his brother’s cohort to execute projects that African countries never saw the light of day ( and he is still working on a USAID project). Mind you, at that time, I was working on my small business building several technology platforms, doing BD to secure clients and expending all my revenues and investment aside from putting 18 hours a day making sure everything was done. Enduring the brunt of our decisions due to strategy and approach was not the issue, rather it was the series of clients who benefited from services that resulted with unrecoverable receivables. Hence, as a consultant – and found out it was one of the main challenges of many consultants and micro SME- ensuring that our work is equally compensated was the underlying problem. For me, “under promising and over delivering” was my moto and I have been told that at times I should not always think of the right way of executing rather to just do it regardless of the quality and level of impact. I thought it was non-sense.

As we converse on the phone, we both highlighted what was vital to us, has always been the impact and sustainability. As she echoed the words of my father, “between you and I, we will have spent 100 years working on Africa issues”, for me as equally for her, our measurement of success has been to ensure that the next generation doesn’t have to struggle trying to tackle the same problem- Diaspora integration and serving as cultural brokers to strengthen the economic ties between North America-Africa.  There are stark differences in our respective entrepreneurial journeys. She was 50+, a mother of three working children as oppose to me who was 30+, single and without children; and both having extensive professional experience that spam over a decade, we both engaged with a similar approach- extend our skills to the African Diaspora leaders and organizations that at the time were on the verge of crumbling. Given our initial approach in building a circle of African entrepreneurs, I made business mistakes and decisions that were not always beneficial to my business growth. The difference for me has been the adjustment I had to make from being associated with do-oers and falling into a trap of talkers and malicious individuals. It took me time and energy including my own money, before realizing that unless I execute my vision others will exert me. My confidence and convictions about my vision, which is essentially my input,  have led me thus far.

My path has been for the institutionalization of my vision with the legacy of an African woman entrepreneur who seized the opportunity to actualize her “American Dream”. To me, I see the vision of Henry Ford in 1903 when he established the Ford Motor Corporation, Rebecca Lukens in 1825 when she turned her family’s faltering ironworks into a thriving steel business, Mr. Sam Walton at the age of 44 who opened the first Walmart, Mary Crowley who founded in 1950’s Home Decorating and Interiors as a way to help women make money by selling at home parties, Ray Kroc with the Mac Donald Brothers incorporating McDonald’s in 1955, and Ruth Fertel in 1961 who mortgaged her home to buy Ruth’s Chris Steak House, etc…So many before me saw a business niche, scalability and offerings of experiences to embark on their entrepreneurial journey by building and establishing brands. Having joined the workforce as a youth and working since then, and even in my personal and volunteering experiences, brand building, customer engagement and user experiences has been at the forefront because messaging to change your mindset and manage your perception has been the ultimatum goal. So after ruminating with a few ideas, I leaped with the prevailing one, I devised a multilayered strategy and implemented it tirelessly. Hence, my startup which is an ICT driven integrated branding solutions to promote multicultural markets and strengthen North America-Emerging markets economic relations.

It has been a challenge as I have always been an executor and during this entrepreneurial journey I had to learn plenty on my own- I did not have anyone paving the way for me ( without a present mentor or role model); I did not have anyone connecting me to those who can support or champion my vision ( most asked for a favor beyond my core values); I did not have anyone referring me to opportunities ( rather offer to take shares for a certain probability of introductions); and surely, I did not have anyone providing me capital to ease the transition from worker to entrepreneur ( instead, I continuously have people calling me for advice and guidance if it is not to request a loan). Notwithstanding the challenges, I have been able to pave my way to being one of the SME that secured government agency contracts, participated at the first US-Africa Heads of Summit in Washington DC and were in every high-level meeting regarding the African Diaspora and entrepreneurship ( with determination, I carved a space for my vision). Branding multicultural markets commencing with Africa, and initially engaging with organizations that had as mission to engage the Diaspora for economic development and cultural exchange, was my mission. We continued our discussion emphasizing on relevancy and the measurement of success equating the newsworthiness of self and self-promotion, though for her and I, we have been focused on the “work” because we knew the problems and we know how to fix it; the only miscalculation is our belief that we can change the mindset of the leadership stinginess and clinginess to power. At the end of our discussion, we concluded that this experience is a confirmation that our input has value and we rather invest in ourselves, in our dreams and vision. We agreed that doing for self what we have exhaustively done for others would be rewarding because we understand cross-cultural nuances and intercultural subtleties. We laughed it all off by sharing that it was better to have your foundation strong instead of being another floating EIN – like many we have encountered on this path.

Today as I keep moving ahead due to my undying vision, my greatest advice to entrepreneurs and youth is to not waste your time. Unless the time of others has an added value to you + your business + your vision, with every interaction including your friends and excluding your family ( and even then) extending or misappropriating your time may be costly. The lesson here is to ensure to value your time enough to have others value it too. You time is your energy, your time is your money and your time is the allocation of time and space to grow. As an entrepreneur and startup the input of the wrong customer base, hiring the unfit staff and accepting investment from those who question your vision would be detrimental which can lead to failure. If you are on a path without progress, take a breather- stop what is not working and allocate time for yourself to redefine your business strategy. A new frame of mind is required to advance and actualize one’s vision.

Email or comment- will be happy to know your thoughts?